How to Dice an Onion

I am one of those people who weep when cutting onions.

Red, swollen eyes, sniffly nose, blubbering, the whole works. It often gets to the point where I have to remove myself from the vicinity of said onion and wash my hands and face thoroughly. Otherwise, I’d probably slice off a finger trying to see through the river of tears.

Lately, I’ve been trying different methods of slicing and dicing onions so that I don’t have to leave the kitchen every time I need to chop an onion (which is pretty much every dinner). The method I’m about to share has helped my onion dicing game quite a bit. I may tear up a little, but I’m no longer forced to surrender to the mercy of the layered veg by dashing away. That’s a win in my book.

Here are my tips for dicing an onion:

1. Make sure your knife is sharp. It will make it easier for you to stay in control of the knife when making incisions so that you do not cut yourself.

2. Lop off the top of the onion. Whatever you do, DO NOT CUT OFF THE ROOT. The root (the part of the onion at the bottom with the bristly hairs), once cut, emits a gas that causes us to tear up.

3. Peel off the onion’s outer skin. We do not want this. It is not tasty.

4. To avoid slicing off the root, chop the onion in half down the centre so you have two even pieces.

5. Next make even incisions along the top of one half, but make sure you don’t go all the way through the root.

6. Once you’ve created a fan with your incisions, hold the onion together and slice through the middle once, again making sure you don’t hit the root.

7. Finally, chop the onion horizontally to create little cubes and repeat with the other half.

8. Bask with pride in the beauty of your perfectly cubed onion!

This method of dicing an onion has been working well for me for the past few months. I guess I’m very sensitive to the onion’s enzymes because I still tear up a little, but at least I’m not booking it to the sink anymore!

Do you have any other tips or DIYs for chopping onions without crying? If you do, leave a comment. I’ll take any and all advice I can get!

Two tips I’ve gotten along with this is light a candle it vaporises the enzymes and then also chill the onion in the freezer twenty mins before you cut it… luckily I’m always burning scented candles so this wasn’t weird for me to bring it to right where I’m preparing food and I plan my weekly meals on sundays so putting an onion in the freezer when I get home has become second nature to me

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I'm Amanda, the baker, editor, photographer, and cinnamon lover behind this blog. I'm all about creating simple, fun recipes for delicious home baked goods using natural ingredients. Welcome, and thanks so much for stopping by! more about me →